Tag Archives: Marna O’Brien Park

This is what happens when a good idea goes bad because city officials don’t think it out.

The Freedom Swing was installed, for the second time, at a cost of more than $31,000 more than a year ago. It has not been available for use by the general public because this city was unable to come up with an instructional sign which would allow people to properly use this swing.
In the interim the swing was kept behind a locked gate which the children of this community figured out how to circumvent. (Bend the Latch)

Notice the tilt of the swing because the chain on the bottom left has been broken by people jumping up and down.

You can see where someone has tried to fix it with a piece of wire rendering this device unsafe for the general public.

Towards the end of the video it appears someone has gotten tired of waiting for the city to unchain this swing in the park. This is the second time I have noticed the latch having been bent so the citizens that paid more than $31,000 could use this apparatus that has been installed twice in the same park. (The first time it was installed it was removed less than a month later, after having failed a safety inspection.)

Some still Photos show the swing has a broken catch that hold the ramp in upward position

Upper Right side of swing has broken clip. The swing is also leaning to one side for some strange reason.

There is a move about town to install a “Drinking Fountain”, for dogs and humans, at the infamous Regency-Heritage Park located in the northwest side of Wildoslavia. While the idea has been batted about for a number of years the city has apparently located a willing child and sold them on doing a “Scout Project” to cause this fountain project to spring to life.

The idea is a good one and has been long sought after by dog owners, the few that use the DG covered dog park, as the summer months are rather warm in this part of the world where there is little grass to play on.

Above Picture taken in July

Even in Winter there is little grass in this neglected park

The above picture taken in December, the green outside dog park is weeds

The plan is bad plan because this park is a part of the, poorly maintained, drainage system that directs waters from several areas of Wildoslavia, namely to the south as far as Marna O’Brien Park and the hills to the Southwest of the park above the Woodmoor Tract of homes.

The red lines are the existing storm drain infrastructure, the blue line is the proposed additon. The following pictures show the areas where these enter the park

The above picture is looking southwest towards the hills above the Woodmoor Tract

The above picture is looking south towards Marna O’Brien Park, notice the wire has been lifted to facilitate the flow of water, presumably by city staff.

Above picture is looking east towards Palomar St.

The above picture is looking into the park from the Palomar pipe, notice the debris that has been there for years and still is.

In the past it has resulted in much damage being done to this park.

The above pictures were taken in September of 2014

This damage still happens today

Notice the engineered material that cost thousands of dollars is saturated from a December 2016 storm. The damage is so severe the swings have been removed.

Taken the day after Christmas 2016 near the drain for this Tot-Lot in Regency-Heritage Park

This poorly maintained drainage system for this park is slated for an upgrade somewhere in the future, brought to you by Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation (RCFC&WCD), the upgrade is a part of the recently (January 2014) adopted Lakeland Village Master Drainage Plan

This Lakeland Village Master Drainage Plan (Lakeland Village MDP) calls for the current 10 foot wide X 18 inch deep channel through Regency-Heritage Park to be widened to 42 feet in width X 6 feet in depth. This new channel, referred to as “Open Channel A” will be capable of handling a 100-year event consisting of 1,115 cubic feet of water a second.The city has known about this concept since they were notified by a concerned citizen more than 2 ½ years ago. Refer to

What does the city lose when this “Open Channel A” is constructed. Nobody really knows at the present time. The RCFC&WCD has a concept but no engineering has been done.

It is possible that 30 feet of the enclosed area currently called the dog park will disappear making the existing dog park smaller while at the same time making it more likely to survive as future flooding will be eliminated. It also means that whatever “Drinking Fountain” installed will lose its water source as the metered water is located on the east entrance nearest Autumn Oak Place.

That is unless the city plans for the new water pipe feeding the “Drinking Fountain” to be installed below the 6 foot depth of the future channel. Does that sound like a “Scout Project”, not many are qualified to operate a backhoe.

The City of Wildomar currently has a Public Works Advertised Project (Request for Proposal or RFP) to re-install the ADA swing at Marna O’Brien Park.
The last time this swing was installed in Marna O’Brien Park it was referred to as the “Freedom Swing”.
Its last appearance was for 22 days.

Not having learn anything from past experience the City of Wildomar will once again attempt to place the ADA, Wheel Chair or Freedom Swing in one of the cities public parks
Interesting to note is unlike other RFP’s this one has no engineers “Estimated Cost”.

The first installation of this swing was removed after a Certified Playground Safety Inspection performed on October 19, 2014 (a Sunday morning) determined the swing DID NOT meet playground safety standards as called out in the Public Playground Safety Handbook Publication #325 issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. This publication has been made law in California with the codification in the Health and Safety Code section 115725-115735.

This RFP contains no drawings, it does contain Specific Directions for the bidder in “Exhibit – A”
One such direction is to refer to manufacturer’s installation for swing support and hardware.
If one looks at the “Playground Inspection of the Wheelchair Swing” on page 8 of 13, installing this swing per the manufacturer’s instruction will lead to the same conditions, use zone D1 for one, that failed inspection previously.(D1 use zone is found on page 41 of 60 of Publication #325)Without re-engineering this apparatus it will never meet this requirement.

The RFP does contain a photo to show the numbered points in “Exhibit A”

Exhibit – A makes mention of a new 20 foot by 30 foot slap, which according to the manufacturer is too small. Only by 2 feet but the rules are not written in a foreign language.